Here, in the waters around Hamilton Harbor, the spring fishing bite is in full swing!  Despite what has seemed like months of relentless winds, severe hard charging gamefish species are now staged in their traditional May haunts testing the tackle, skills and wills of anglers.

Aboard the Grand Slam, our efforts have been focused on the “big three”, snook, tarpon and permit.  While each species habituates diverse locations throughout our coastal ecostystem, all posses’ incredible prowess and power make them great light tackle targets.

Along the beaches from points south of Marco Island northward to Bonita Beach, the tarpon have poured into the region in big numbers and they are hungry!  Tarpon, often referred to as the “silver king,” are eagerly snapping up a variety of natural and artificial baits both early and late in the fishing day.  While the results of each tarpon trip can vary, anglers can expect to tangle with behemoths in the 80 to 150-pound class.  Truly an incredible thrill!

Snook, a popular light tackle target, can now be found prowling area beaches, middle bays and passes.  Tide will be cruicial to your snook success as these feisty gamefish aggressively feed during times of swift water movement.  My favorite tide phase to prospect for snook is the last half of the falling tide when the water becomes slightly turbid, as snook can often be hook and leader shy.

On the offshore, the permit bite is beginning to hit full stride.  Here for their annual spring/summer spawning cycle, permit in the twenty to forty pound class are taking live silver dollar sized pass crabs and well presented Merken style crab fly patterns over several of the larger artificial wrecks and reefs that dot our coastline.  Revered for their keen instincts and drag screaming runs, catching a permit on light tackle should be on every anglers “bucket list!”

Till next tide… hook up, hold on and have fun!

Captain Will Geraghty, The Grand Slam, grandslmcharter@aol.com

Tags: boating, fishing

This entry was posted on Friday, May 15th, 2009 at 9:16 am and is filed under Club Activities, Marina. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.